As an avid cyclist, I belong to a local cycling club who takes us out into the rolling hills of the country side. The views are spectacular and some of those hills, intimidating. At times we cycle for 100kms and reaching speeds into the 40kms/hr on the flats. The group can range of up to 30 or 40 riders at a time and one can really get boxed in.
It's always an enjoyable time with the added bonus of getting a great workout and burning calories! However, there are the rare occasion where injuries occur. On a recent outing we were climbing a fairly steep hill when suddenly one of the cyclists veered off to the left and cut in front of another cyclist causing her to make a sudden and awkward stop. She said she immediately felt pain in her knee.
Once we got back to our vehicles we got ice on her knee. I palpated and tested the range of motion in the painful area and discovered the Vastus Medialis aka inner, lower thigh or quad had been strained.
I did a light massage to the quads and hamstring muscles to passively stretch out the muscles and prevent further guarding, slightly increase blood and lymph flow to help with a speedy recovery and reapplied ice to decrease further swelling.
Two days later I made a house call finding the strained quad almost completely healed. The cyclist, Cheryl had been resting, icing and applying Arnica to her knee. I gave her a complete, full body massage emphasizing her low back, gluteal muscles and legs. These are the areas that were affected most during the cycling incident. After the massage we iced the recovering vastus medialis and left Cheryl to rest a little longer.
The quicker we aid an injury the quicker we'll be back out to our activity.
Wellness to you,
Jeanne
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